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Is there any place in the new digital environment for the media relations expert? And if so, what is it? According to the journos, we can start by building trust.
BlueChip recently attended the IABC lunch panel, ‘The New News Cycle’, to hear more about the changes to the news cycle over the last decade and the knock-on effect these have had on participants from both sides of the media fence: journalists and media relations professionals.
The panel consisted of prominent representatives from both schools, including Damon Kitney, the Victorian business editor of The Australian; Nabila Ahmed, companies and markets editor at the Australian Financial Review; and James Hall, Senior Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs at Brambles.
As the panel explained, thanks to a digital media revolution that has created a 24-hour news cycle and seen media outlets reduce staff numbers, the working day for a journalist is faster, longer and more competitive than ever before.
In a world where time-poor journalists who are under increasing pressure to be the first to report the next big breaking news piece, the trusty old media release simply isn’t always going to cut it.
The challenge for media relations professionals is getting cut-through and this comes down to understanding how to best interact with journalists in a collaborative way that produces a ‘win-win’ outcome: valid, timely and relevant news and information that helps support the audience in making more informed decisions.
The big question is, against the backdrop of such pace and competition, how to achieve this?
According to our panellists, the answer is simple. It’s all about the relationship. Or, as Damon Kitney put it: “Relationships are valuable, it comes down to the simple premise of trust”.
How do we as media relations specialists build that trust?
By being transparent and honest; providing clarity of information; access to the right people; and being quick with responses/information.
Developing trust won’t happen instantly. It is a commodity that needs time and testing to grow. And while most of us communicate mostly via phone or email, it is actually the face-to-face conversations we have that are more meaningful – and so more likely to build that trust.
What that means is that every so often we should all tear ourselves away from our respective offices and meet with our journalist connections for some good old-fashioned non-virtual conversations. Ideally, as well as trust and even a bit of fun, these will help us provide them with genuinely useful information as we learn more about:
- What topics they cover and what is relevant to their audience
- The journalists’ preferred method of communication (e.g. email or phone calls)
- When is the best time to contact them (avoid the deadline calls)
The point for a media relations specialist? We need to show journalists we are there to help, not hinder. To boil it down, it’s about understanding what they are after and helping them find it.
